The Birdcatcher

Another film where it's hard to make sense of polarised viewers giving it very high or very low ratings. I always attend a Holocaust Memorial Day screening a local cinema, so I was disposed to give it a chance and make up my own mind. On the plus side, there's striking photography (as some reviews have stated); some originality in the Norwegian location; and interesting themes in relation to how people there responded to the Nazi occupation.

But as another reviewer says, it has: "An interesting premise plagued by implausible plot elements... ". Within minutes, I wondered if I'd misunderstood that Esther is supposed to be 14, as she looked far too old. IMDB indicates she was 28 when it was filmed. It doesn't matter that she's a good actress - a 28 year old won't be credible as a 14 year old child, so why cast her! We soon see a succession of scenes that are impossible to take seriously, or ramp up the melodrama far too high. In fact there's so much going on in the central family - in relation to their internal conflicts and their attempts to 'manage' relations with their occupiers - that the film might have worked better and more coherently without Esther even being in it!

A shame, though, because if someone had refined the screenplay, and the director has reined in some of the more ridiculous moments, it could potentially have been a very good film.

A completely different kind of WW2 drama, The Bird Catcher is an eloquent, elegant film. Esther is a Norwegian Jewish teen from the picturesque town of Trondheim, who dreams of becoming an actress. Escaping a brutal Nazi roundup,, she finds a strange, tense refuge on a farm that will soon require her to make use of all her talents in order to survive. But many other characters also struggle to survive their own nightmares - the Nazi collaborating farmer, his dysfunctional family and decadent German officers occupying the farm. Parts of the plot might be labelled predictable, but were really just inevitable. The quality of acting and directing kept me involved right through to the poignant ending that spoke of forgiveness and compassion.

This Anglo-Norwegian production tells the story of Esther (SarahSofie Boussnina), a 14-year-old Jewish orphan in Germanoccupied Norway during WW2. Disguising herself as a Gentile boy, she seeks refuge with a collaborationist family. Serious suspension of disbelief is required to accept the heroine's masquerade, while emotional resonance is diluted by a streak of melodrama.

No, Esther did not really look like a boy, and a few other details were not totally realistic, but so what? Overall I found The Birdcatcher effective and I was engrossed from beginning to end. Often when watching films it's necessary to suspend disbelief and some films require it more than others. During the Holocaust, Jews did anything they could to not be captured by the Nazis. They were hunted prey. Some of the survival stories are hard to believe yet they happened. Imagine living in a sewer for a couple of years. Or a forest, or a crawl space.

The cinematography was excellent with gorgeous shots of Norway in winter. The plot which is based on a true story is, as I said, engrossing. There is some fine acting too. It's definitely worth watching unless you're into movies like Deadpool or Guardians of the Galaxy.

Great story, great mix of emotion with plot, a real soft spoken hero with a heart of steel. It is not romanticised, it shows how events can shake people as people shape events and reveals some dark history. Watch it.